On paper, it looks like a daunting enterprise.
But thanks to Terene Foutz and the coaches, volunteers, parents and players with the Four Corners Volleyball Club – with plenty of help from the Fort Lewis College women’s volleyball program – the annual Diggin’ It In Durango girls volleyball tournament held the first weekend of April was an enormous success.
How enormous? The tourney used 27 different volleyball courts at Fort Lewis, the Durango Community Recreation Center and high school, middle and elementary school gyms in Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio.
It included 95 teams from Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The event required cooperation between all of the county’s school districts and brought in 35 USA Volleyball-sanctioned officials to oversee play, which by all reports was fast and fun.
Club executive director Foutz described it best: “We had a thousand volleyball players,” she said, “girls 10 to 18, mixing it up on a grand stage.”
On an equal footing, she added, was the tournament’s “spike” to our local economy. An event this size needed something in the neighborhood of 1,700 hotel room nights in Durango and Ignacio for the 4,000 family, staff and team members who attended. A crowd that size likely ate more than 15,000 meals at area restaurants, and no doubt many needed full tanks of gas to return home, not to mention souvenir T-shirts, chocolate and other goodies from our downtown shops.
Since all three communities played a part, Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio all benefitted. “That’s one awesome economic impact for our shared communities,” Foutz said. “We’ve set a precedent for inter-community partnership and hospitality.”
We agree. Kudos to Foutz and her crew. But a focus just on numbers and dollars overlooks the point of the event, which was all about the serves and the blocks, the sets and the saves, the rallies and the big hits over the net. Club-level play demands dedication from the players, the coaches and the parents who make it all happen.
More to the point, Foutz reminded us, the tourney was about teamwork and fair play, “and continued growth in team sports for girls.”
